CARRIED AWAY

The Coventry City manager Mark Robins has said that the players got carried away with the occasion after suffering a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Crewe Alexandra. Coventry came into the match on the back of a brilliant run of form, which has seen them go on an unbeaten run in the last four matches. As a result of this form, they have been able to close the gap on the club’s in the play-off position. Coventry were expected to challenge for promotion spot, and Robins is extremely delighted that they are finally close to achieving the same. However, he said that the occasion got to the players during the match against Crewe Alexandra.

As a result of this defeat, Coventry City now face an uphill task to progress to the next round of the Johnson paints trophy. Coventry will have two more matches to recover the form before they face Crewe in the return leg. Coventry faced Crewe Alexandra in front of more than 30,000 fans, who were expecting the home team to win quite comfortably. Due to this electric atmosphere, Coventry started throwing men forward and forgot the task of defending. This allowed Crewe to score three goals and take a commanding position in the tie.

“It was an electric atmosphere but having created numerous chances we started to get anxious and we left the middle of the pitch wide open. You’ve got to give credit to Crewe because from their point of view it was a perfect away performance. And we knew that was what they were going to do so it’s disappointing that we didn’t stay calm. It didn’t help that they had a goalkeeper in inspired form. We were a victim of our own phenomenal support,” said the Coventry manager after the match. Coventry will face Yeovil town during the weekend.

LEARNING CURVE

The Coventry manager Mark Robins has said that he wants the club to use the FA Cup defeat at the hands of Tottenham as a learning curve to grow as a club. The club were in danger of being humiliated by the Premier league team after they can see that three goals in just 37 min of play. Clint Dempsey opened the scoring for Tottenham after just 14 min, while the star winger Gareth Bale doubled the advantage in the 33rd minute. Coventry then conceded a goal just 4 min after the goal from Bale to go into the half-time trailing the Premier league club 3-0.

Robins has admitted that he did fear that Tottenham might humiliate the League One club, but his team put on a spirited display in the second half to end the match by the same score. Robins has said that he is extremely happy that his team was able to draw the match in the second half. He has praised the movement and the passing football adopted by the Premier league club, which has seen them rise to the third position in the table. The Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas rested a number of high profile players for this match, but they were still able to steamroll their opposition.

“You have to try to learn something from every game. They are a top team, a real class act, and we know that next time we play a team like this we can’t afford to stand off them and allow them to dictate because once they get their tails up they are very difficult to stop. There was a touch of rabbits in the headlights about us at the start and after eight minutes you could fear a rout,” said Mark Robins. The club will be playing against Preston in the football league trophy during the weekend.

EXPECT BETTER

The Coventry City manager Mark Robins has said that he is expecting even better performance from his team after the 2-1 win over Morecambe in the third round of the FA Cup. Gary McSheffrey opened the scoring for Coventry City after just 37 min from the penalty spot. He was brought down by the opposition goalkeeper Barry Roche, as he tried to go round him. Carl Baker improved advantage for Coventry City after just 17 seconds following the restart in the second half. The second goal immediately after the break helped Coventry settle down in the match and they almost scored the third through Richard Wood.

However, he suffered was ruled out by the officials due to an offside position. However, Coventry City were made to pay for not taking advantage of the chances they had in the match, as Kevin Ellison scored with only 20 min remaining on the clock. It looked like Morecambe would be capable of pulling in the equaliser, but Coventry held on to progress to the next round of the cup. Even though they achieved a victory in the match, the manager Robins said that his team is capable of playing even better and they should show that in the next matches.

Coventry will be facing a tough home match against Sheffield United in the football league trophy next. “Initially we struggled to get on the ball and play the game we wanted to because they were keeping possession so well until we tweaked it slightly and got into the ascendancy and played some decent football. I thought some of the football was excellent from both sides, us particularly, but I still want more. The positives are that we have lost two or three players for this game and two or three came in and gave a good account of themselves,” said Robins.